Happy Holidays Shaker Card

I know, I know...it's not Christmas time yet. Except if you are a crafter, it is time for holiday Bazaars and making handmade cards. I was playing with the Holiday Cheer Shaker Ornament kit, and I thought a removable shaker ornament would be cute on this week's Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge.

I didn't have a ton of time to craft, since I just got back from a long weekend at the beach with my family and some of my stamping pals. Over the weekend I completed all the card and pages from my latest Craft With Heart Subscription boxes. When I got home I looked at the shaker tags spread across my desk, grabbed some festive washi tape, then started taping and stamping the stripes from the sketch across my background. I had intended to leave the whole background white, but I couldn't resist a little penwork around the edges.

Inside the shaker I mounted a glossy, sparkly snowman image. I did a little surgery on his arms to make it look more like he was holding that sign. Then I filled the shaker with silver sequin mix, tiny silver baby sequins, and some white snowflake nail gems. Can't wait to make a few more of these shaker tags - my friend Elaine was making the cutest tags all weekend!

Ho, Ho, Ho Quick Card

Hello, Stampin' Friends! I've been working really hard recently on getting ready for the Mt. View Holiday Bazaar. It's a huge craft and gift fair, and I'm super excited to be going back for the second year in a row. I've got Holly Jolly spread all over my desk, painty fingers, and glitter on all the things...but the Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge calls, so I grabbed some scraps of what I've been using and made this quick and easy holiday card.

I used the outer edge of the ornament banner sticker from the workshop kit to mask off the scalloped border, sponging it in with a soft craft brush. I stamped around it with snowflakes and stars from the Whimsical Holiday Set, then filled in the card front with an older, retried PML card, Aqua shimmer trim, and washi tape. I used another PML card for the snowflake square, and nabbed the Ho Ho Ho sentiment from the die cuts of that Holly Jolly Kit I've been using for so many non-scrapbooking projects.

I finished embellishing with a pink snowflake sticker (Holly Jolly kit), some small white snowflake nail embellishments, and red glitter gems. Then I went around the edges of the stamping and snowflake with a glitter pen, and also added some shimmery lines to the plaid pattern of the background. 

The Mt. View Holiday Bazaar is on Saturday, November 2 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. There will be arts and crafts, gift items, home decor, antiques, food and more. If you're in my area, I hope you'll stop by and say hi!

Snowflake Peace Card

Hi, Stampin' Friends! I didn't mean to take last month off, lol, but life is what it is. I feel like this year has been a big year of change for me. Without change, there cannot be butterflies, and I sure do love butterflies...I appreciate your patience with me, Stampin' Friends, as I work my way through this cocoon. Getting my paws inky again always feels so good!

This week's Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge sketch is a cute one! I love working with sketches - it's like coloring with your supplies. Today I combined the new Boutique papers with the Winter Flurries Thin Cuts. I did the snowflake using the Sugarplum Glitter paper and it cut like buttah! Don't get me wrong - I LOVE my Cricut machine, but it sure was nice to just pop out an intricate snowflake with no fuss. I mounted it on a stitched circle cut and topped it with some silver thread, a button from my stash, and a Sugarplum Glitter Gem.

The silver embellishing thread add such a nice subtle touch of sparkle. I used the zip strip to pop a sentiment onto this card, topping it with a single word from the Christmas Bingo stamp set. I added just a couple dots of glitter gel to finish off the design and balance that large sparkly snowflake. This is a great sketch for using up scraps for sure! I hope you'll pop over to Atlantic Hearts to play along this week!

Happy Holidays Tree Card

So I had an idea while I was messing about with the October Stamp of the Month. I embossed the tree image (love!) from October SOTM in White embossing powder, and instead of dropping watercolor or sponging ink over the top I went over the image with sponge daubers to fill it in with bubbles of color. I rocked the dauber in a circular motion to make the color bursts, then used a kleenex to clean off the white embossing.

In real life the tree is sparkly with shimmer pen and red glitter dots. I accented the stars in the design with gold Wink of Stella pen. I also daubed shimmer pen over all the holiday lights in the background paper and filled the heart chipboard border with red glitter gel.

The paper is from the adorable new Beary Christmas line, and I started off with the new sketch from Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge. Pop over to Atlantic Hearts to share a creation of your own!

October Stamp of the Month Blog Hop

Welcome to the Stamp of the Month Blog Hop. This month we are featuring the October SOTM, called Christmas Tune, a sweet shaker globe themed set. You may be arriving here from JANNA'S BLOG. You can find a list of all the participating blogs here.

For this project I started with the new sketch from Freshly Made Sketches. First I used white detail embossing powder to emboss the word wreath image in the bottom right corner of a panel of watercolor paper. Then I painted over the embossing with green and red watercolor paints. I added strips of black stripey Cats & Bats paper and gold shimmer trim. I added some hand drawn stitching around the edges, as well as both gold glitter gems and Bitty Sparkles that I colored with a green alcohol marker.

I painted scrap white cardstock with more of the red and green paint and hit that with my heat tool to be sure it was dry. I stamped the bottom of the tree image with Memento Tuxedo Black ink before trimming out just the bottom rows as a sentiment banner. I added some touches of gold Wink of Stella and Gold shimmer pen. The Stella is gold shimmer in a gold base, and the CTMH shimmer pen is gold shimmer in a clear base. I love them both!

Next up on the hop is GINA'S BLOG. Don't forget to click here or ask your consultant about scooping up your own October SOTM, before it melts away! 

Holiday Expressions New Product Blog Hop

Welcome to the Holiday Expressions Blog Hop! Today we are sharing lots of festive fun from the new CTMH Holiday Expressions book. You may be arriving here from SHEILA'S BLOG, and you can find a full list of participants here.

Today I decided to make a quick little holiday card to try out some of my fun new Beary Christmas goodies. The bear image is from Beary Christmas - Scrapbooking, and the matching Thin Cut Dies make these dudes so much fun to color! I was working from this week's CAS(E) This Sketch challenge. Instead of adding a strip of paper or shimmer trim, I chose to fussy cut some of the string lights from one of the Beary Christmas prints to criss-cross my card.

I also fussy cut the poinsettia on his paper pieced hat from anther Beary Christmas print. The sentiment is from Gingerbread Friends, and I went over the letters with both glitter gel and my Spica pen. I added some extra big wiggly eyes to our little bear friend and drew on a little smile. Finally, I made good use of my shimmer brush on all the lights and his sweet pink nose.

Next up on the hop is MICHELE'S BLOG. Happy hopping!

Halloween Blog Hop

Welcome to the Halloween Blog Hop from Blog Hops with Heart! You might be arriving here from STEPHANIE'S BLOG. You'll find a list of all the participating artists at the bottom of this post. Let's Hop!

For today's hop I'm using the new Cats and Bats Workshops Your Way kit. I love that these affordably priced kits include everything you need to make three double page layouts. I find it hard to just follow the directions for the kits though, as I like more stuff on my pages. I'm a lumpy-bumpy kinda embellishment crafter! Luckily there's plenty of stuff in the kit to satisfy even me! This is the first of the three pages in the kit. I did not change any of the cutting in the guides, but I did add some of the items that weren't used in the original instructions which you can view here. I also flipped some of the papers (LOVE that double sided print business), and changed the photo layout a bit to accommodate my bigger photo choices.

I added more to the title area of the kit instructions. I used one of the printed 3x4 cards included in the packet, which was a chevron print, to create the oversized teal arrow element. I stole the Halloween title stickers from another page (because I usually only need one or two Halloween pages each year, not three, so I used the last one for something special). In the bottom corner of this page you can kind of see some of the paper tearing elements I added, as well as seriously upping the amount of shimmer trim on this layout.

I did a shimmer trim "stitch" all around the layout as well. I just trimmed 1/8" strips from my shimmer trim and lined them up! I might have wondered if it would have been quicker to actually stitch the page at one point, but I love the chunky stitch effect. I also added some googly eyes to the black glitter chipboard bats. They are so sparkly and a really nice weight, too.

Next up on the hop is AMIE'S BLOG. Happy Halloween hopping!

Boo to You Blog Hoppers:

Kelly

Jayma

Stephanie

Wendy (You are here)

Amie

Katy

A Blog Hop with Heart(s)

Welcome to the Blog Hop with Heart(s). This month's theme is, of course, hearts! You might be arriving here from BECCA'S BLOG. You can find a complete list of blogs at the bottom of this post. Let's hop!

I have the simplest little project this month. When I heard the theme was hearts I made a lot of plans, but today Mac came home from school complaining that he needs his Valentine's Box for his classroom. Ahem, what do you mean? I guess a note was sent last week, but moving is killing my last brain cells, so I missed that part. We duct taped a small box (something we aren't lacking around here right now, lol) with shiny silver duct tape. Then we used scrapbooking cardstock and more red duct tape to create a Harry face and scarf to fit on the top of the box. Everything was eyeballed and handcut, because dinner had to be made and time was of the essence, YKWIM? We filled his glasses with acrylic hearts, which I attached with strong glue so they won't pop off. Then I sawed a mouth into the face (sorry, Harry) so kids can stuff the Valentines in. Max is thrilled, we are all caught up, and Harry is pretty darn cute. We even wrote "alohamora" on the back where he can open the box to get his goodies out!

Next up on the hop is SHELLY'S BLOG. I'm sure you'll {HEART} all the projects, so be sure to keep hopping until you end up back here!

Amie

Stephanie

Jayma

Katy

Becca

**Wendy** You are here!

Shelly

Nobunny Like You Heart Card

This weekend I was lucky enough to scrap and stamp with some of my favorite peeps at the coast! We spent the whole weekend giggling, crafting, and hanging out and it was so much fun. One of the projects I made was this card for my team to make as a hands-on for our meeting next Sunday. 

This is the February Stamp of the Month again, called Easter Bunny. I was working off the sweet new sketch for Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge. After using a dot folder to emboss my White Daisy background, I added this wreath image that I die cut with the coordinating Thin Cuts die. The dotted paper is from the new Dreamin' Big paper line. I stamped the bunny with Memento Tuxedo Black and colored him with my handy watercolor pencils, blending with my small waterbrush. I tied on some grey thick twine, which I separated and then tied both strands on at the same time. My friend Amanda said that I should add a Lagoon cardstock mat to my card front, and of course she was right!

She also helped me get over my own laziness to add some paws to the little heart this sweet guy is holding. I found the tiny tulip image from the floral border included with the Happy Easter set was perfect for making his little paws. As a final touch I gave him some oversized wiggly eyes and then I squealed with happiness for entirely too long. I might be squealing again even as I type this - his eyes are just that adorable! I'll try to contain myself as I link up to the Paper Issues Let's Play Post Office Linky Party. 

Product List

Wreath [A1193]	Thin Cuts—Wreath (no stamp set) [CC1157]	Dreamin' Big Paper Packet [X7218B]	Dot Embossing Folder [Z1924]	Easter Bunny—February Stamp of the Month [S1702]
Black Memento™ Ink Pad [Z899]	Watercolor Pencils [3505]	Waterbrush—Small Round [Z3224]	Whisper Thick Twine [Z3095]	Poppy Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad [Z2652]
Thin 3-D Foam Tape [Z2060]

Scrapping Our Stash December Blog Hop

Welcome to another Scrapping Our Stash Blog hop. For December we chose an Anything Goes theme. You might be arriving here from LYNE'S BLOG. You can find a full list of hoppers at the bottom of this post!

 A Christmas Story has long been a family favorite of ours, and Ben's love of chunky black glasses helps him bear a pretty good resemblance to Ralphie Parker. I don't know why, but this year he agreed to be Ralphie for Halloween. We thought we'd have to really work on him, but he loved the idea and agreed to give up his typical Star Wars costume for the low, low price of a small custom box of See's Candy. He loves wearing that costume much more than Ralphie did, and so we brought it with us to our holiday family photo shoot.  Apple Blossom Photography took the most amazing pictures of my sweet Ben in this crazy bunny suit, and these pics needed a special page all their own. I used the December 1st sketch from Stuck? Sketches for this single page layout.

I combined a Memo Fundamentals notebook paper with some (retired) Charlotte pink papers, Cranberry and Whisper Cardstock, and a bit of City Sidewalks holiday paper. I splattered some black watercolor over the notebook paper, and hand-wrote Ralphie's Christmas Theme onto the background. I diecut some snowflakes from silver glitter paper to go with the whisper snowflakes I stamped and then I embellished the snowflakes with lots of bitty rhinestones. I cut my title using the Flower Market Cricut cartridge font combined with some stamped words stolen from the February SOTM (sneak peek!). I finished with a lot of rhinestone embellished silver hand stitching and some American Crafts washi tape. I'm also linking this page up to the current issue over at Paper Issues.

Next up on the hop is SANDY'S BLOG. Happy Hopping!

DECEMBER SCRAPPING OUR STASH HOP:

Wendy Coffman

Sandy Ross

Majken Pullin

Lyne Schnable-Blodgett

Sending Smiles Snowman Mason Jar Card

I'm starting to transition out of Holiday cards now, but today's card is a bit of a bridge into winter card. I just got my new Flower Market Cricut cartridge and when I found the mason jar my wheels started turning...

So I flipped over that mason jar and filled it with the Cozy Christmas snowman. I used the matching Thin Cut dies to do his hat and the holly sprig. I loved being able to shape his arms into a friendly wave with the flexibility of a clear stamp. After I stamped his body I masked it off with a post-it and stamped on the "snow" texture using one of the stamps that came with my Flower Market Cartridge. I mounted my mason jar snow globe over two kinds of embossed white cardstock (stripes and snowflakes). White on white textured backgrounds make me so happy! I used the Mojo Monday sketch as inspiration for this card design.

I cut two of these flowers from the Flower Market cartridge. I loved how the layered flower was so easy to make since the layers are automatically sized so you don't have to figure out all the measurements. I cut one at 2" plus one at 1.5" and the cartridge resized all the layers automatically - so easy! My SENDING SMILES sentiment came from another of the stamp sets that are part of the Flower Market bundle. The mixed fonts are just so pretty. I didn't mean to make more holiday cards at this point, but I'm snow glad I did!

Merry and Bright Blog Hop

Welcome to the Merry and Bright Blog Hop! You might be arriving her from BECCA's BLOG. On this month's Blog Hops with Heart we made you some fabulously merry holiday projects!

For me, holiday crafts are the most fun. I love that holiday decorations are never too sparkly! This year I added a sweet Holiday Banner and an advent tree to our entryway. I used some rhinestone covered push pins to hold up my new decor creations.If you want a closer look at that triple block decoration hanging from what is normally just key hooks, you can see that ornament up close HERE.

 I found the banner in my to be decorated project drawer. Perhaps it originally came from Michaels? I can't be sure. I painted most of the banner pieces with a dark red acrylic paint and swiped the edges them with the green. I flipped the colors on the dividing banner.  I outlined every letter with glitter gel, and embellished the banner with wooden snowflakes, sequins, rhinestone and bitty sparkles, and more glitter gel. Lemme tell ya, that was a lot of Liquid Glass, Stampin' Friends.  I tied the banner pieces together using baker's twine and topped the bows with more rhinestone sparkles.

I found a blank tree wooden decor piece at Craft Warehouse. I painted it with the same dark red and green acrylic paints. I outlined each tree "branch" with silver glitter gel. I stamped the numbers on for a guideline, and then I filled in the letters with a sharpie marker. I found a very vintage CTMH rhinestone circle frame sticker, which I mounted on Ruby cardstock and topped with a gingham bow to create the Advent marker. It moves along with the help of a glue dot behind the bow.

I coated the entire piece with a glitter acrylic paint topcoat. This isn't the greatest picture, but can you see the bling? It might just be the sparkliest paint ever! I adhered a glittered kraft star diecut to the top of the tree for one last touch of sparkle. I know there wasn't a lick of paper on my projects today, but almost everything (but the tree base) came out of my stamp room stash, so I hope you'll still enjoy my glittery decor items!

Next up on the hop is AMIE'S BLOG. Happy Hoppin' Holidays!